The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-04-14
QUITE A DEMOCRAT.


The Statesman from Ohio ConfrmInx the
Democracy in It's Ort-Exppressei 0pla-
ion that the War Is Over.
Senator Sherman is said by Senator
Beck to be one of the three leading
candidates for the Republican Presi-
Dental nomination next year. Sher-
man is swinging round the Southern
arc of the circle just now. He is talk
ing tariff. currency, and high Repub-
lican fol-de-roL On the good old
bloody shirt issue he ''wars you gently
as a sucking dove" as your Uncle
Billy Shakespeare would say. just
think of this from leading Republican
Presidential possibility:
The war is over, but the courage, bravery and
fortitude OF both sides are now the pride and
heritage OF US all Think not that came here
to reprosch any man for the part he took IN
that fight, or to revive in the heart of any one
the triumphs Of victory or the pangs Of defeat.
do not come to make apologies nor do ask
any Of you. The war was perhaps unavoidable.
All claim is that the Republican party was
sctuated, not by a spirit Of hate or conquest or
revenge, but only by fervent love Of
the Union, and a determined purpose to
maintain the constitution, as they un-
derstood it. No man in the North
questions the honesty OF purpose or
the herosm with which the Confederates main
tanned their cause and you will give credit for
ifke courage and honorable motives to Union
soldiers North and South. The attempt to en-
force the rights of the colored men by National
authority has thus far partly failed, and now it
is conceded that under the limitations OF the
constitution the rights of the citizens of State
can only be enforced through State or National
tribunals, and where public opinion is intoler
ant jurors will not do their duty citizen white
or black, may be witho:: remedy for the grossest
wrong, except the right to migrate to where his
rights will be respected.
Who would have thought it would
be so soon that Republicans would be
pleading for an abandonment of war
issues? We are glad to see it. 1t
won't only save the Democrats a great
deal of trouble, but it furnishes a
healthy indication that the South is pros
pering. and that the Republicans recog-
nize it. The South's greatest prosper
ity has come about under Democratic
State administrations, and thus indi-
rectly the Republicans pay the Demo-
Gratis a high compliment. But what
! is still better, is that Southern prosper
ny makes for National prosperity.
But Just listen to this:
Without chart or compass to guide them,
they (the Democrats) would peck at, derange,
agitate and disturb the magnificent industries
| built up by the Republican party, and you, COCA
people of Tennessee, with unlimited natural
resources and abundant raw material, are eX-
| peCted to leave them all undeveloped to favor
Democratic purposes rather than support Re-
publican policy manifestly in your interest, all
because, Torsooth the Republican party did not
agree 1oith some Of yes about slduery and the
,cdr Twenty-Five years ago. You are expected to
pull the chestnuts out of the fire in gratitude
to party in the North for its sympathy for you
| in the war, into which they encouraged you to
enter, and deserted you in your extremity.
The italics are ours. Sherman has
at last found out that the war is over,
and has been over for twenty-five
years.
He has made another great and
original discovery, which places him
alongside of Newton, Copernicus and
Calico. He tells the Southerners that
the Northern Democrats deserted
you in your extremity which is to
say that the Northern Democrats were
loyal, and that the Republican charge
that they were disloyal is beastly lie
out of whole cloth, fatty violating that
one of the ten commandments, which
says: Thou shalt not bear false wit
ness against thy neighbor." This is just
what the Southern Democrats them
selves have been saying ever since the
war, and now their enemies confirm
their testimony.
1t is well enough to record and pre-
serve these words of leading Repub-
lican, and for that purpose VIC take
them from the columns of a Republican
paper. They are part of supposed
verbatim report so far as it goes. Of
Sherman's Nashville speech. They
will do to quote next summer, and
again next year. We find it a very in
teresting speech.
1t is a very striking speech, too, and
striking departure from the hack
neyed old Republican harangue of
blood and fire and gush. But it does
sound funny to hear died-in-the-wool
bloody-shirt shrieker trying to catch
the Southerners by telling them that
the Northern Democrats were loyal in
| the War-DeS MOi1es Leader,